Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 25: District manager of Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme, Jagannath Shirlal, said that city-based Indiana Hospital has been suspended from the purview of Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust with effect from August 24 till further orders. He said that the hospital has been charged with providing wrong information to beneficiaries under the scheme and wrongly collecting hospital charges from them.

"The state government's Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme aims at providing treatment to BPL ration card holders free of cost. Under this scheme, beneficiaries get free treatment in super specialty hospitals which are registered with the department. As per registration rules and agreements entered into, Indiana Hospital was to provide surgery facility for heart ailments free of cost to BPL card beneficiaries. But when Muhammed Shariff, a BPL beneficiary, got admitted into the hospital for heart problems on August 22, the hospital asked the patient to foot a bill of Rs 1.3 lac. Another patient, Asainar from Belma village in the taluk who got admitted into the hospital on August 22, was asked to pay Rs 25,000," he said, adding that these acts violate rules and agreements under the said scheme.